the north side of the river Thames. ated on the opposite bank, in Surry.

Southwark is situ

The extent of the whole, from Limehouse and Deptford, to Millbank and Vauxhall, is about seven miles; and the breadth varies from three to five. The extension of this metropolis, since the middle of the last century, has proceeded with unprecedented rapidity, and covered the fields, gardens, and marshes in the vicinity of London, with new squares and streets.

The direction of the principal streets accompanies the course of the river Thames from east to west; and the cross streets run mostly in a transverse direction from north to south. There are two chief lines of streets from west to east; one of which commences at the north side of Hyde Park, and under the successive names of Oxford street, St. Giles', Holborn, Skinner street, Newgate street, Cheapside, Cornhill, and Leadenhall street, is continued to White Chapel and Mile End, on the Essex road; the other begins at the south side of Hyde Park, and consists of Piccadilly, St. James' street, Pall Mall, Charing Cross, the Strand, Fleet street, Ludgate Hill, St. Paul's Church-yard, Watling street, Cannon street, and Tower street; it may be said to be farther extended two miles along the river side, in Wapping. The streets near the river, and most of the cross ones in the city, are very narrow; the broadest and handsomest are to the north of Oxford street and Holborn. They are all well paved with granite stones, (for the attempts at Macadamizing have not succeeded in London,) and on each side with flag stones for the convenience of foot passengers. The subterranean works, constructed for the accommodation of the inhabitants, consisting of sewers, drains, waterpipes and gas-pipes, are most extensive. The houses are mostly built of brick, of a pale color. The principal squares are Grosvenor, Portman, Berkeley, St. James', Hanover, Manchester, Cavendish, Bedford, Russel, Tavistock, Bloomsbury, Montague, Leicester, Bryanston, and Finsbury squares, and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Among the public buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral is the most conspicuous. It is 2,292 feet in circumference, and 340 in height to the top of the cross, and is inferior to none in Europe, except St. Peter's, at Rome. It contains monuments of many illustrious individuals, who have done

honor to their country by their talents or their virtues. Westminster Abbey is a grand specimen of Gothic architecture, said to have been founded by Sebert, king of the East Saxons, in 610. Here most of the English sovereigns have been crowned, and many of them interred. It contains, also, a great number of monuments, erected to the memory of kings, statesmen, heroes, poets, and persons distinguished by genius, learning and science. The chapel of Henry VII., adjoining, Leland calls The Wonder of the World. St. Stephen's, Walbrook, is a small church, of exquisite beauty, the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren. Bow Church, in Cheapside, St. Bride's, in Fleet street, St. Dunstan's, in the east, and several others, are worthy of notice; but the far greater number are of plain and ordinary architecture. The churches and chapels belonging to the establishment, in the bills of mortality, including those erected under the recent act of parliament, amount to two hundred and sixtysix. There are likewise a great number of meeting-houses for Protestant dissenters of all persuasions, thirty foreign Protestant churches, fifteen Roman Catholic churches or chapels, and six synagogues for the Jews. Besides the royal palaces, there are many fine houses of the princes of the blood, and of the nobility and gentry.

The

The Tower of London is very ancient, but the founder is uncertain. It is surrounded by a wall, and partly by a deep ditch. The Mint, on Tower Hill, is a very elegant modern building, of pure Grecian architecture. bridges are a great ornament to the metropolis. The most ancient, London bridge, was begun in 1176, and finished in 1209. The length of it was nine hundred and fifteen feet; the number of arches, nineteen, of unequal dimensions, through which, in consequence of their narrowness and clumsy construction, the current rushed with such force as to render the navigation extremely dangerous. This clumsy fabric has lately been removed, and its place supplied by the New London bridge, which was commenced March 15, 1824, and completed July 31, 1831. This is one of the most splendid bridges in the world, being constructed of hewn stone, and unrivalled in the model and style of architecture. It consists of five semielliptical arches. Its length is nine hundred and twentyeight feet from the extremities of the abutments, and the

width of the road-way, fifty-three feet. This bridge is one hundred and eighty feet higher up the river than the old one, and is built of the finest granite. The quantity of stone used was about 120,000 tons. The expense of the construction was borne partly by the city of London, and partly by the government; it being, like the old one, a free bridge. Westminster bridge was commenced in 1739, and opened to the public in 1750. It is twelve hundred and twenty-three feet in length, and has thirteen large, and two small semi-circular arches. Blackfriars bridge, built by Mylne, was completed in 1768. Its length is nine hundred and ninety-five feet; the breadth of the carriage way, twenty-eight; and of the foot paths, seven feet each. It consists of nine elliptical arches, the centre one of which is one hundred feet wide; and both this and the arch on each side are wider than the celebrated Rialto, at Venice. Waterloo bridge, commenced in 1811, and opened in 1816, on the anniversary of the battle it is designed to commemorate, is one of the noblest structures of the kind in the world. It consists of nine arches, each one hundred and twenty feet.span, and is thirty-five feet in elevation. The other bridges are those of Southwark and Vauxhall. The Thames Tunnel, a work so long regarded as impracticable, has at length completely reached across the river, a distance of twelve hundred feet. Among the other public buildings, which can merely be enumerated here are Westminster Hall, containing the supreme courts of justice, and adjoining to which are the houses of lords and commons; the Guildhall of the city; the Sessions House; the Horse Guards; the Treasury, and the Admiralty, at Whitehall; the noble collection of public offices which form that magnificent structure called Somerset House; the British Museum; the Royal Exchange; the Bank of England; the Excise Office; the East India House; the Mansion House, for the Lord Mayor; the Monument in commemoration of the great fire, in 1666; the New Post Office, in St. Martin's-le-grand, opened in September, 1829; the Stock Exchange; the New Custom House; the New Corn Exchange, erected on the site of the old one in Mark Lane, in 1829; the Herald's College, and the halls of the various city companies. The Adelphi Terrace is the admiration of foreigners, for the noble view which it affords of the river, the bridges, and other public

buildings, and of the fine hills beyond Lambeth and Southwark. The inns of court, for the study of the law; the colleges, learned societies, and public seminaries; the noble hospitals, and other charitable institutions; the public places of diversion, &c., are too numerous to be here particularly mentioned. Such, on a cursory view of it, is the metropolis of Great Britain, to the extent and opulence of which many causes have contributed. The broad stream of the Thames, flowing between London and Southwark, continually agitated by a brisk current or a rapid tide, brings constant supplies of fresh air, which no buildings can intercept. The country around, especially on the London side, is nearly open to some distance; whence, by the action of the sun and wind on a gravelly soil, it is kept tolerably dry in all seasons, and affords no lodgment for stagnant air or water. The cleanliness of London, as well as its situation on the banks of the Thames; and the New River, with many good springs within the city itself, farther contributes to the abundance of that necessary element.

ST. HELENA.

THE island of St. Helena stands entirely detached from any group, and is about twelve hundred miles from the nearest land, on the eastern coast of southern Africa. An imperceptible point in the Atlantic Ocean, this rock is nine leagues in its greatest circumference. Steep shores form for it a natural and nearly impregnable rampart. It is divided into two unequal parts by a chain of mountains intersected by deep valleys. The coast is very barren in appearance, but a rich verdure covers the interior of the island, even to the tops of the mountains, from which springs of pure and wholesome water exude on every side. The cultivation of almost all the fruits and commodities

of Europe and Asia succeeds here. The pasturage feeds a great many oxen, sheep and goats, a resource highly valued by navigators.

It has a population of about two thousand persons, of which five hundred are whites, and fifteen hundred are negroes, the garrison not included. A company has re

144

cently been formed for fitting out some whale ships from

this place.

Jamestown, on the northwest coast, is the only city, and port of St. Helena. The approaches are defended by good fortifications. At the time of its discovery in 1502, the interior was only one large forest, and the gum-tree even grew on the edges of the rocks suspended over the sea. Fernando Lopez, a Portuguese renegado, who in 1513 obtained the favor of living in exile here, first stocked the island with goats, hogs, poultry, and other useful animals. The Portuguese having in time deserted it for their establishments on the southern coast of Africa, it was taken possession of by the Dutch, and abandoned by them in 1651, for the Cape of Good Hope. The English afterwards established themselves here. It was granted to the East India Company by Charles II., and was the only resting place in the Atlantic possessed by them for the refreshment of their ships. The island is ten and a half miles long, by six and three quarters broad, and about twenty-eight miles in circumference.

The principal plain in the island, called Longwood, situated on the eastern part, has become celebrated by the residence of Napoleon Bonaparte. The illustrious captive arrived at St. Helena in November, 1815, and died there May 5th, 1821. The spot where he laid "quietly inurned," until his remains were removed to France, was in a deep valley, surrounded by a small iron railing, and covered with a coarse brown stone, lying about eight inches above the level of the ground, without an inscription. His sepulchre was overhung by three weeping willows of a very large size; and a few yards to the south of it, is a spring from which he used to take his water. interesting spot is distant from Jamestown about two miles This and a half, and is approached by an excellent road connecting the two places. The body of Napoleon was deposited in a mahogany coffin, placed within three other cases: on the external one was the inscription, General of the French. By his side laid the sword he wore at Austerlitz.

Recent visiters to Bonaparte's tomb describe the fresh planting of a set of young willows around it, cuttings from the parent trees, by the present governor, as the old ones are fast going to decay. Longwood is now a farm-house, and no part but the former billiard room remains inhabita